Michigan’s Tom Gillis Qualifies for A Full Year on PGA Tour Champions

By Tom Lang

Lake Orion native Tom Gillis survived a late-round struggle on the last few holes of the PGA Tour Champion’s final stage of Q-School that took place at TPC Tampa Bay in mid-December, holding on to claim the fifth and final full-exemption spot for the 2022 season. 

More recently a resident of Jupiter, Fla., Gillis shared his perspective during a series of topics we discussed, laid out in the sections that follow:

Should the PGA Tour Champions Tour eliminate Q-School?

Gillis explained how unfair he thinks the current system is for allowing just five exemptions for the entire year. He would rather see expanding chances to reward more players who are playing well at the time of Monday qualifiers. 

“I’m in the last group on the last day and looking around (at total of six golfers) and I’m thinking one of us isn’t going to make it (tour card) and we’re all playing about 8-under par,” he said about Q-School. “And we’re all playing our ass of and I’m thinking this is a little harsh. I’m more of an advocate that we do away with this format (awarding 5 season-long cards) and add five extra spots to Monday qualifiers, so we’d have nine spots (instead of top 4) every Monday and you’d still get good stories.

“Not a lot of guys commit to the Monday qualifiers because only four advance,” Gillis continued. “Now if you have 9 spots it generates more excitement and a chance to get in. I mean 9 spots, that’s pretty generous. If I lost my card, I’d be counting on those nine spots. I was already hedging toward the Monday qualifiers like I did so many years before. I didn’t think I was going to get one of those five cards because I came in (to the finals) not playing very well.”

Gillis’ 2022 Goals:

“I would like to have a better grasp of my game throughout the course of the year, so when we do get off track it shouldn’t take as long to get back on track. That’s definitely my top goal.

“Maybe not play too much. If you’re worn out or not home and missing the family, we don’t necessarily have to keep playing. The more I play the worse I get, like toward the end of the year when we were stringing all these events together, I just didn’t have anything (left). I probably would have been better off going home for two weeks and sorting things out and getting your head quieted down.”

Tiger Woods on the Senior tour? 

“I wouldn’t be surprised. The fact you can use a cart on that Tour, and he could probably qualify for an American Disability Act (exemption) on the PGA Tour (now). 

“I would not be surprised at all if he came out and played a few (on the Champions). My 16-year-old son asked the same thing the other day, and I said I don’t think he’ll be a mainstay (on the over-50 tour) because about then his son Charlie will be late teens and Tiger would take great pride in seeing that through, so I don’t think he’d commit to a full season, just like Phil isn’t. 

“Tiger’s still got a lot of compete in him. It’s hard to get that out of somebody’s system.”

Phil and Furyk:

“I figured we’d see Phil a little bit, and then once he got out here, I knew he was going to love it because it’s such a casual tour. It’s almost like the golf gods have shined on you when you earn Champions Tour status. It’s so laid back. Some of the guys who were prickly or edgy before aren’t edgy anymore. They’ve made their money; the kids are grown and there’s a lot of camaraderie out here.

“Like Jim Furyk, he’s one of the quietist guys I knew on (PGA) Tour. I never really knew him but now I feel like I really know Jim. I consider him a friend. I can talk to him about anything. He’s great. He will even tell you, ‘I had a wall up, being so focused for playing for all that money.’” 

Gillis added that in the later years Tour players no longer have to build a bubble around themselves like before when they were being pulled in so many different directions.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet:

Despite the PGA Tour’s decision in 2021 to reward social media activity with millions of dollars, Gillis’ gut-honest posts have been chided by the PGA Tour in the past and he is still told now and then to remove Twitter content. 

“I always said I’d never get involved in politics on it,” Gillis told me. “I said it for years and really never did… I don’t think I’m a great follow unless you’re a diehard Republican, but I fight the fight and I always shake it off when people say, ‘you’re great on Twitter.’ I wouldn’t call it great, maybe angry (he said with a chuckle). 

“I guess I care. I’m a patriot just like the next guy. And I’m passionate about it. Me and Scott Dunlap, we get a lot of calls from the Tour. They want us to take posts down and we do usually, we don’t fight it too much.”